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QAMANITTUAQ/BAKER LAKE - The Baker Lake airport is a busy place, especially during summer, and it's all due to a bustling exploration industry on the hunt for uranium, gold and other metals and minerals in the area - by several accounts.

The Baker Lake airport has been a busy place this summer as companies like Calm Air work to service mining companies like Agnico-Eagle, which is developing its Meadowbank gold mine north of the hamlet. - NNSL file photo

"I think we're the busiest airport in Nunavut right now. Not for scheduled flight, just for exploration," said Dennis Zettler, senior administrative officer for Baker Lake. "Every summer for the last five years, it doubles."

The hamlet has become a transportation hub for companies like Agnico-Eagle as they prepare mines for operation or search for the next big deposit.

Agnico-Eagle is currently readying its $302 million Meadowbank gold mine, 70 km north of Baker Lake, host to probable reserves of 3.5 million ounces of gold and set to open in 2010.

Last year the company built a 100 km all-weather access road from Baker Lake to Meadowbank, spending between $40 and $50 million.

This summer, among other on-site projects, the concrete for a 40 million litre tank farm was poured.

Calm Air International has especially had its plate full as a result of Meadowbank, according to Nunavut area manager Karen Yip.

"We've been, I think, significantly busy this summer in organizing things for the mine," said Yip.

"We've had passenger charters. We've had an increased number of freight flights."

The freighter flights carried everything from rock, soil and water samples, equipment, personal effects and staff.

"You name it, we'll bring it," she said.

While summer is typically the busiest time for communities near exploration areas, Yip doesn't foresee traffic slowing down as the weather grows chillier.

"Agnico-Eagle is still going to be in operation in the winter time and they're still going to be needing things that they can't bring in any other way," she said.

"They're still going to keep us pretty busy."

The business generated by companies like Agnico-Eagle has helped Calm Air grow.

"We have more staff on than we've ever had," said Yip.

This summer, he added, "we've hired two people more than we would have had otherwise."

Keith Pudnak, an observer at the Baker Lake airport, said the airport has at least 30 to 40 movements a day.

"All at once they come in," he said.

That said, he believes traffic has actually dipped this year compared to last year, saying the airport easily had 80 to 100 movements last year.

"It's not as busy as last year," he said.